Joel Allison is president and chief executive officer of Baylor Health Care System in Dallas. His healthcare management career spans more than three decades. He joined Baylor Health Care System in 1993, and served as Baylor’s senior executive vice president and chief operating officer before being promoted to president and CEO in 2000. Allison received a bachelor’s degree in journalism and religion at Baylor University in 1970 and attended Trinity University's healthcare administration program, where he earned a master's degree in 1973. He is also a graduate of the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School, and in 2004 he received an Honorary Doctor of Humanities degree from Dallas Baptist University. Allison is a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives.

The impending physician shortage has now bubbled to the surface. And politicians both at the state and federal levels are doing something about it. Texas is facing a broad need, particularly in the wide-open rural counties and in urban sectors where poverty is rampant and infrastructure is lacking. Statewide, there are about 186 physicians for every 100,000 residents, according to the Texas Medical Association. The national average is 236. Full Story

Approximately 3 million baby boomers are entering retirement and enrolling in the Medicare program each year. By 2029, an estimated 20 percent of the American population will be Medicare-eligible. But will they be able to find physicians who accept it? Full Story

Dr. Göran Klintmalm, chairman of transplantation at Baylor Scott & White Health, recently told a room full of listeners stories of how he and other leaders at Baylor launched the transplant program here exactly 30 years ago. It was 1984. Dr. Klintmalm kept pockets full of nickels and knew the location of every pay phone in East Dallas, always prepared to make impromptu phone calls to procure organs for his patients. Full Story

Cleveland Clinic is the No. 1 heart hospital in the country, according to U.S News & World Report. And now, this top program is seeking alliances to help extend its high-quality, efficient, effective care across the country. Cleveland Clinic’s Sydell and Arnold Miller Family Heart & Vascular Institute’s leaders say they are looking for organizations that not only deliver care it would be proud of, but organizations that align with them culturally. Full Story

I am often asked why Baylor Health Care System and Scott & White Healthcare merged in 2013. Like many big ideas, it had simple beginnings. Believe it or not, it actually began with a discussion over breakfast that eventually led to the board approving the merger. Full Story

Texas nonprofit hospitals must spend at least 5 percent of their net patient revenue on community benefits, of which at least 4 percent must come from charity care. Prior to merging, the Baylor Health Care System gave six times that amount and Scott & White provided four times that amount. CEO Joel Allison writes about why this is important to the nonprofit’s mission. Full Story

Creating the right future for health care is like unwinding a ball of string, you have to start by finding the knots. The three knots in the way health care is delivered in this country today are waste, lack of coordination, and poor management of chronic disease. We as providers have never been incentivized to address any of those issues. Now, at Baylor Scott & White Health, we are building a model to change that. Full Story

In the early 1990s, Delta Airlines became the first to ban smoking on flights. In 2011, Baylor Scott & White Health, then known just as the Baylor Health Care System, vowed to no longer hire nicotine users. Now, the 2014 decision by CVS to stop carrying tobacco products is another sign that cigarette smoking will continue to be snuffed out in this country. Full Story

We’ve already started seeing sparks of this across the country—organizations redesigning their benefit plans, creating wellness programs, and working to get their employees to think more about their health-related expenses—all in an effort to deal with skyrocketing and unsustainable healthcare costs. Full Story

The ACA is not what’s going to really change healthcare in America, it will be the providers taking the field each day that will create the new models of care that improve the quality of care delivered, enhance access to care and do so at an affordable cost. That is the real future. Full Story